GoBabyGo!

Never stop, GoBabyGo!

Give to GoBabyGo!

Help us to transform the lives of children by supporting the GoBabyGo program at IU. With your gift, we can provide more kids with a ride-on car of their own–each one costing $300–$400– at no cost to them or their families.

Make an online gift

For more information about giving to GoBabyGo please contact Adam Van Zee.

GoBabyGo is transformative for children in the community with motor and cognitive developmental delays. By providing adapted battery-powered cars and four-wheelers participants are able to gain mobility in their environment. GoBabyGo impacts the lives of these children and does so at no cost to the families.

Our physical therapy students in collaboration with students from the School of Engineering and Technology at IUPUI and community volunteers use vehicles and funds donated to us to supply our design teams with the tools necessary for the custom builds.

To get started, physical therapy students evaluate every child and work with their families to custom design the vehicles to meet each child's specific physical therapy goals.

If you have questions about GoBabyGo, please email Sara Davis, DPT, PT, at gobabygo@iupui.edu.

 

GoBabyGo at IU recently unveiled the program's largest fleet of motorized vehicles to date at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where 10 Indiana kids got to test drive their new wheels for the first time. 

Description of the video:

Once a kiddo has been accepted to get a Go Baby Go! car, we sit down with a team of mechanical engineering students, physical therapy students and occupational therapy students, and what they do is they see what their mobility looks like, what their specific goals are from a mobility perspective, and then they help decide what modifications need to be made to that car.
Then we have a huge build day. We've purchased all of the materials that we need and then we have a team for each car that needs to be modified that actually does the modifications for that vehicle.  We pick a vehicle that is specific to the child that we're building it for.  We pick it depending upon how big the kid is, how much the child weighs, what their goals are, how many modifications we're going to make.  We add stickers. We pick their favorite colors. We add something that makes it really personal so that when they see their car, A) they know it's theirs and B) they want to be in it.
Then we have a huge play day where all of the kids get their cars. They get the opportunity to learn how to drive them.  They get to practice driving them.  
Bo qualified for the Go Baby Go! because he has a diagnosis of Down Syndrome, which makes him have different abilities. He has low muscle tone and some developmental delays that go along with that diagnosis.  Bo's car was adapted for him. They put a step on the side so it's easy for him to get into. Bo likes to open and close doors and drawers.  That's like his favorite thing to do at home, so they made sure that the door opened and closed on the side it was easy for him to do.
Once a kid receives their Go Baby Go! car, they're basically a part of our family forever.  So, if they need updates to their car, if they need modifications in the future, we absolutely can work with families to do that.
It means a lot to us that Bo was able to be part of this program because you want your child to be able to enjoy the things that typical children do.  So, to see him get so excited, it was great.
Kid smiles while meeting physical therapy students.
Kid smile for the camera in his new ride.
A physical therapy student and kid get to know each other.

34cars have been custom built and delivered to families since 2015

9families are on the waiting list, and the list keeps growing

200student hours spent on evaluation, design, and building cars

We couldn't do without you!

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We are so grateful for the friends, family, and alumni who continue to support GoBabyGo through their time, expertise, and resources. We couldn't have impacted the lives of over 30 families without you.